Hiryuu the Flame
by Ryu Haku
Summary: Years after Vash has dissappeared, another threatening outlaw of Gunsmoke is being tracked by the Bernardelli Insurance Society: Hiryuu the Flame. T for violence and minor language. RnR!
1. The Assignment

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Trigun, nor the cities, terrain, animals, or any other element of the storyline and setting of the Trigun series.

Chapter 1: The Assignment

"Hiryuu the Flame: wanted dead or alive. Reward: $$2 000 000 000," Kristyn Paine read the memo aloud. "You're job as part of the Bernardelli Insurance Society is to help prevent any damage that this outlaw causes, much the same way as Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson oversaw the actions of Vash the Stampede. You will be partnered with Myra Thompson."

Myra sat opposite her in the small cubicle. The two girls got up and looked at each other.

"Well, it looks like we're going out on an assignment like Meryl and Milly!" Myra said cheerily. She wondered if they would have the same success that Meryl and Milly had had with Vash.

"Let's get going," Kristyn said. "They say he last struck in March so it looks like that's where we're going to start."

Myra pulled the gun Milly had given her over her shoulder and Kristyn put the strap of her metallic suitcase over her shoulder. Within fifteen minutes the two of them were on their way to rent a pair of thomases for the trip to March.

They stood outside waiting for the clerk to get their rides. Myra was wearing a light blue jacket that came down to her knees and revealed her white blouse and a blue shoulder strap she had fashioned for the gun under her coat. On any other woman the jacket would be a dress. Her long golden brown hair halted at the brown leather belt fastened around her light green shorts. Kristyn came up to Myra's elbow. She was wearing what appeared to be a pale grey trench coat that almost covered her khaki cargo pants completely. Her long black hair hung in a braid that dangled a foot above the ground. Her impatient foot was tapping in her white boot. The attendant seemed to be taking her precious time.

"Come, _on_ already," Kristyn said impatiently. "What the heck is taking that guy so long!"

Myra smiled absent-mindedly looking at the desert to the southeast. She had the feeling that they were going to be on a wild adventure. The entire desert seemed to open to the many possibilities. In a few days they would be in March hunting down this Hiryuu character until they found him. According to the legends he had burned down the town of February fourty years ago. Not a single thing wasn't turned to ashes. But the most peculiar thing was that even one of the metal plants and the clay houses had been reduced to nothing. No one had survived it but some people traveling to and from the city said that the fire was so big and bright that people closer to the town got burns from the intensity of the heat when they were still over 200 yards from the city. They said it looked as though there were three suns setting that evening. Everywhere Hiryuu the Flame attacked the place he attacked burned down. In February, the entire city burned down when the flames erupted very quickly from the north side of the town right next to one of the plants which eventually burned down as well. In March only seven or eight buildings burned down but some said that they saw a monstrous beast burst out of one of the burning buildings on fire. The flames engulfed it and it disappeared.

"Will you hurry up already" Kristyn screamed into the wide door the attendant had disappeared through.

"Shouting isn't really that necessary," Myra said, as Kristyn gave her a very frightening look.

"I … don't … like … waiting!" the devilish looking Kristyn said.

"Wow. You know, you should really try and control your temper, Kristyn! You're not going to get anywhere with that kind of behaviour," Myra said politely.

"Myra, I … I hate when you're right," she said loosing some of her steam.

The attendant came out and showed the two thomases that they were renting. Myra paid the fare and led it to the road.

"Come on, Myra it's time to go," Kristyn said.

"Are you sure we can make it all the way to March on these things?" Myra said as she mounted the thomas, which groaned at her.

"It's about all we can afford for right now, Myra. We don't want to blow our budget on getting to March," Kristyn said, all too knowledgeably. "But we will have to stop in April on the way to get some sleep tonight."

"Vash and Millie went through April!" Kyra said cheerfully.

The two girls rode out of town toward April. The ride was quiet, other than occasional moan of the running thomases or their soft footfalls in the sand, but it was also steaming hot. Myra was comfortably lying down against the thomas's neck and occasionally could be heard snoring into the afternoon. Kristyn couldn't stand the bouncing of the running animal and at about two o'clock in the afternoon she had to stop. Myra woke at the halting of her own thomas.

"Why are we stopping, Kristyn?" Myra said, yawning.

"Do you want some lunch or do you just want to sleep the day away on that stupid animal?" Kristyn said, scowling at her own thomas. She pulled two cups of ramen and a water canteen out of her steel suitcase. She poured the water into the cup and handed one to Myra who looked down at the cold ramen with confusion.

"Aren't we going to heat them up first?" she said reluctantly.

"Yes, Myra, why don't I just whip a stove out of thin air and heat up some water!" she replied sarcastically.

Kristyn started at her ramen with chopsticks she pulled out of her case. Myra just looked at hers.

"My feet hurt, this sand is as hot as a stove," she said sitting back up on the thomas.

"Great idea, Kristyn!" Myra said cheerfully, setting her cup of ramen on the hot sand. Kristyn just looked at her then continued to eat her own.

After a few minutes Myra picked up her cup and tested the water.

"That's better," she said, slurping down the noodles. Kristyn sat up properly on her thomas and gestured to go. Myra got up and started riding behind her humming softly. Kristyn was about ready to crack when Myra broke off.

"This is like an adventure!" she piped. Kristyn felt herself slumping in her saddle and thought to herself _this is the worst assignment I've ever taken from the boss_. Myra continued with her humming and Kristyn felt like she was either going to die from bobbing up and down, heat stroke, or Myra's humming. Or maybe a combination of the three.

----

The man in black walked into the saloon. Some of the regulars walked up behind him. He turned and looked the man behind him in the eye. The man was going to say something smart to the newcomer when he noticed his eyes. His eyes were red, with a slit for a pupil. The men just stared at each other.

"Something wrong?" the man with the freaky eyes said.

"No, I just…" the man started to say. "Welcome to the April Saloon, kid."

The man turned around and sat back down with his buddies.

"That kid ain't human!" he whispered to the other drunkards at the table.

"Oh, c'mon, Jim. You been dringin' too friggin' much whisgey," one of the drunkards said, obviously far more drunk than Jim. "I'll go chegg 'im out."

The very drunk man got up and swayed dangerously as he made his way to the seat next to the man at the bar. He looked at the kid, stared at him.

"You want to see me, too," the man said in a young voice, looking directly at the drunkard, who suddenly fell back out of the chair.

"Holy shit! Whad da hell did you do ta your eyes?" he said steadying himself on the fixed bar stool. "Looks like you stole 'em from a friggin' devil!"

"I met the devil once," the kid said. "His eyes were like black holes with a dark glowing purple pupil."

By now more than half the bar was staring at the kid at the bar.

"Double shot of whiskey with a twist," the kid said. The bartender loaded a shot glass and put the lemon twist in it, not wanting to argue with the kid. "Thanks," he said throwing the twist out and drinking the shot like it was hot tea.

One of the other drunkards walked over to the kid.

"You don't walk into a bar, and order whiskey with a lemon and drink it like a sissy. You want a shot ya drink like a man. Triple shot, Murray."

He took the whiskey down faster than most.

"You never held it long enough to get any flavor," the kid said with a smile as he sipped the whiskey and let it sit in his mouth for fifteen seconds before swallowing.

"Let's see you do it with a whole shot!" the drunk man said expecting the kid to choke.

"Give me a half glass a the strongest stuff you have," the kid said. The barman looked at the kid like he was crazy.

"It'll cost ya," the barman said.

The kid lay one hundred double dollars on the bar. The barman gladly took the bills and prepared a half glass of a very strong whiskey. The barman watched the kid take the glass. He lifted it to his lips and poured half of it into his mouth without swallowing it. After a few minutes he started gargling the whiskey then swallowed a few minutes later. The kid held the glass to the drunkard.

"And you?"

The drunkard sneered at the kid and started to drink the whiskey, but quickly spit it out leaving the glass barely any lower than it was.

The kid got up to leave but the drunkard caught him by the corner of his black jacket.

"Just where do you think you're goin' punk? No one makes a fool of George 'Gripper' and get's away with it!"

The kid pulled some of the long black hair out of his face with his free hand and turned to face the drunkard. Gripper grabbed the kid around the neck with one hand.

"You know why they call me 'Gripper'?" the man said holding the kid in the air against a pillar squeezing the kid's neck hard enough to snap it like a twig.

"I don't know. Why?" the kid asked as though he didn't have anything restricting his air supply. Gripper squeezed harder.

"George you're going to kill him! The barman yelled.

"Actually, I'm quite fine."

Everyone looked at the kid, suddenly. Gripper was groaning with the effort to snap the kid's neck. The kid looked down at him and his grip weakened from fatigue. The kid brushed some of his black hair out of his face again. Then suddenly his arm flew to Gripper's neck and Gripper fell to the ground trying to pry the kid off. Eventually the kid let go and George 'Gripper' was out cold.

"Anyone else?" the kid said in a very calm yet petrifying tone. "Good."


	2. Another Fire

Chapter 2: Another Fire

Myra yawned as she watched the suns setting. The town of April was not far off. Kristyn was annoyed with bobbing of her thomas. She was glad that they were almost in town. She looked up at the rising fifth moon. It's newly formed crater facing them. As they got into town Kristyn stopped at the first inn they could find. She got off the loathsome animal and tied it at the thomas stable. Myra looked at the inn sign. "The April Saloon: Bar and Rooms" with a vacancy sign tottering on one hinge.

"This place doesn't look very nice," Myra said aloud to no one in particular. She walked into the saloon inn and Kristyn followed. They saw a few drunkards at one side. One of them had a large bruise on the back of his neck. Kristyn looked around the place as well and spotted the barman. She walked over.

"Can I get a room for two, please?" she said sitting down on the bar stool. Myra looked up and down the bar noticing that a lot of people were eying the two girls. Kristyn carried out business with the men. She usually held the responsibility of their account when they went out on assignments. But they had never been out for longer than a week. This assignment involved the tailing of Hiryuu the Flame constantly.

One of the drunkards got up and several followed. They were smirking at Myra as they approached.

"Kristyn," Myra said a little fearfully. "Kristyn!"

"What!" she said, looking at Myra. She turned and saw the four drunken men.

"Hey, babes!" one of them said, coolly. "Want to share a room."

"We've already got a room," Myra said.

"Then, I'll come to your room."

"Back off," Kristyn said, turning back forward and muttering "perverts".

One of the men swatted at Kristyn and immediately got a face full of her thirty pound steel case. Myra backed up into there bar and there was the sound of a clasp snapping, then a room shaking metallic thud. Myra picked up Millie's gun and pulled it up resting it heavily on her shoulder.

"Millie always said the strap never held," she said cheerily to Kristyn.

The three conscious men looked at the two girls like they were some sort of demon. Myra just smiled blankly at them and they cowered back to their corner of the small saloon.

Kristyn and Myra had some dinner at the bar. After a few minutes a man wearing all black, with long straight black hair that flowed over his shoulders like water, and a pair of very dark sunglasses, walked into the saloon. Everyone got very quiet, except Myra and Kristyn, who suddenly noticed the silence. The drunken men in the corner seemed to cower behind some menus.

The man walked up to the bar and sat on a bar stool next to Myra.

"I need a room," the man said, his voice revealing that he was in his late teens.

"That's not a very polite way to ask," Myra said scoldingly.

"Myra!" Kristyn scorned.

The teen turned to the barman and said politely, "Sir, may I rent a room?"

Myra beamed brightly at the newcomer.

"Hi, I'm Myra Thompson, who might you be?" she said amicably.

"Hello, Myra. My name is … David," he said, stirring suspicion in Kristin, but not even phasing Myra.

"It is very nice to meet you, David," she beamed shaking his hand with a firm grip. Some of the men at the corner table scowled at the man conversing amicably with the girl. David turned and cleaned his glasses, giving the men in the corner a bloodcurdling stare before replacing the glasses. "Why are you wearing sunglasses indoors at this time of night?" Myra asked, kindly.

"I have very sensitive eyes," he said.

"Are you from April?"

"No, I'm just passing through on my way to October." He gave the bartender a wave. "Double with a twist."

"On the house."

"Everyone's looking at you," Myra whispered to David.

"Yeah, I got in a bit of a brawl with some guys in here," he said casually, brushing it off. Myra watched the barman slide the shot down to David. Kristyn looked at him awkwardly, too.

"Are you sure you're old enough to drink," Myra said, blatantly. "You don't look twenty-one to me."

David gave a short laugh.

"I assure you I'm well beyond old enough to drink," he said, beaming pleasurably at her. He finished the drink slowly. "Well, I'll see you girls later." He walked to the staircase at the back of the saloon and walked up to the rooms.

"That's a very small glass!" Myra remarked at the empty shot glass. "At least he wasn't drinking very much."

Kristyn sighed hopelessly at Myra. "It's time we went to bed, too, Myra."

----

Kristyn woke up at the sound of something crackling. As she got up she heard someone screaming in pain.

"Myra!" she whispered loudly.

"Not yet, Mommy!"

"Myra! MYRA!"

Myra suddenly shot awake and swung out her gun. "Who's there?"

"Myra, it's me! Listen!"

Myra heard the odd crackling sound then a bloodcurdling scream. Then there was a sound like a giant blow torch turned on and suddenly the wall between them burst into flame. Both girls shot out of bed and got dressed extremely quickly. The fire on the wall suddenly extended across in both directions and the bed-ends lit on fire. Myra grabbed her gun and Kristyn grabbed her case. They opened the door to find the hallway was on fire as well.

"God, NOO!" someone in a nearby room screamed. Myra headed for the window and threw her gun through it. The burning wall suddenly burst into the room along with a large ball of flame. Myra jumped out the window onto the porch roof. Kristyn looked through the hole in the wall and saw a giant dark shape engulfed in the flames of the next room over. It stared at her and she stared back at it stunned where she stood leaning on the window sill.

"Kristyn!" Myra shouted from the ground below. But no answer came.

Kristyn watched as the figures head lunged back and a jet of flame shot towards her. She lunged out the window just in time to escape with a minor burn on her boot. She rolled of the roof of the porch and Myra caught her and ran back away from the scene. Kristyn looked back as the entire building seemed to suddenly explode into flames. They had found Hiryuu the Flame a lot sooner than they thought they would.

The building collapsed as the onlookers watched. Most of them were people who had been lodging in the hotel. Kristyn glanced around and looked at all the people who were standing there. It was no crowd, and she didn't see any of the people they had seen in the bar. Not even David. She wondered what she had seen in the flames. She looked back at the inn but there was no sign of anything or anyone in the pile of flaming rubble. Within five minutes, the flames had gone out. They had burned so hot that there was nothing left to burn.

Myra saw a black lump on the other side of the glowing red rubble.

"Kristyn, look!" she said. "There's someone hurt over, there!" she took off running in a wide arc around the glowing ashes and saw the nice, young man they met earlier.

"Are you okay?" Myra asked. "Are you okay, David?"

David looked up at Myra and collapsed flat on the ground. Myra helped him to his feet. He leaned heavily on her.

"Thank you," he said weakly. He bent over double suddenly and he threw up. Myra helped him steady himself again and he looked back at her. She saw his eyes. He looked away quickly, fearfully. Then he bent over and threw up again. "I think I had too much."

"You shouldn't drink alcohol at that age," Myra said with a "you-know-better-than-that" tone of voice.

"Yeah, at my age, no one should drink," he agreed. "Well, thank you."

"You should go to the hospital," Myra said.

"Oh, no, I'll be fine. That's not the first time this has happened to me and not the worst time either," he said, politely. "I can handle myself, but thank you for your concern."

He still avoided her eyes meeting his. Though, she wasn't backing away or calling him a freak like many others had. Why was this?

"Why are they like that?" Myra asked, delicately. She didn't know why she asked, she just did. He stopped and thought a second and before he could answer she plowed on.

"Funny, that we were in the same inn that Hiryuu the Flame struck at isn't it?" she said quickly.

"Why is that funny?" David said looking back at what used to be an inn.

"Didn't we tell you?" Myra said. "Oh, I guess we didn't. Kristyn and I are looking for Hiryuu the Flame. We work for the Bernardelli Insurance Society and we were going to help in detaining him and keeping him on a 'short leash' so he would stop causing so many fires. You know they say he's killed well over a thousand people since what happened in February. Do you know what happened in February?"

"I used to live there," David said. "That's where I'm originally from."

"Well, we're looking for him so that that kind of thing will never happen again. And also he causes $$50 000 000 a year in damages to property, so that's $$2 000 000 000 since the incident in February. He did $$2 000 000 000 of damage when all but two of the plants burned down. That's why we were sent out to find him." She looked around the area for eavesdroppers. "They raised the bounty on him to $$10 000 000 000 because of that," she whispered.

She helped David back to the street and he took out an extra pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them on.

Kristyn helped Myra with him as he threw up once more. The three of them walked over to another inn down the street and rented a room for the remainder of the night. Kristyn and Myra took care of a few burns on David's legs and they went back to sleep for the night.

----

Next, Chapter 3: The Man in Black


	3. The Man in Black

Chapter 3: The Man in Black

The homeless peasant boy walked toward the palace of Kyoto. He looked at the great gates that towered above him. They were slightly open. He looked inside the gates. He saw only corpses and burns. Then he saw the woman standing in the middle of the great space facing the grand steps up to the emperor's palace.

"Hello, Katoma Toyuki," the woman said to the boy never turning toward him. "You seem curious to see what lies in the palace."

"How do you know my name?" the sixteen year old asked the elderly lady.

"You wanted to see who it is that has deprived you of your home and family, am I right?" she said.

Toyuki looked at the old woman.

"The emperor is in the palace. Do you want to kill him?"

"He killed the entire village!" Toyuki screamed.

"Come here, my darling," the woman said. Toyuki felt as though he were being pushed along by an invisible force. The woman slowly turned showing her ugly smiling face to the boy.

"You will slay the emporer," she said, never losing her hideous smile.

Toyuki did not understand. The woman lifted her staff above her head. It suddenly became a katana perfectly balanced for Toyuki. She handed him the sword.

"Kill the emporer and all others inside, and you will be rewarded. Fail and you will be cursed forever."

The woman walked out the gates smiling her hideous smile as Toyuki looked toward her then up at the palace.

----

David woke with a start.

"Are you okay?" Kristyn asked from the edge of her bed where she was typing a report on the inn room's table. Myra was fast asleep on her bed, snoring loudly. David looked around the room. Kristyn looked at him and he looked away quickly and put on his sunglasses.

"You must barely be able to see with those on," Kristyn said. "I can't even see through them if I put them in front of a bright light.

"My eyes are very sensitive," he said. "I have to wear them or I … the light would be so bright it would be painful."

He could see perfectly clearly through the nearly opaque lenses. Though they did make his vision about the same quality as normal human eyes. He looked around the room and saw the obscenely large weapon leaning against the wall next to Myra. He looked back at the girl snoring loudly and the gun next to her. It interested him how she was in possession of such a weapon. Maybe that was what they were going to use against Hiryuu the Flame to subdue him or whatever they were trying to do. He looked at the morning sun coming in through the window curtains.

"What time is it?" David asked Kristyn.

"Nine thirty."

"I slept that long?"

"It's not that late, you went to sleep at two this morning."

"For me, that is like sleeping half the morning away."

"How much do you sleep, kid?" Kristyn asked.

"A lot less then you do."

Myra shifted in bed. She got up a little and looked at the clock. Then she lay down again and put the pillow over her head.

"Myra, you should wake up," Kristyn said.

"It's too early."

"We've got to go after Hiryuu, Myra!" Kristyn demanded. "Other wise he'll get away!"

"But I'm so … tired!" Myra yawned.

"If you hadn't insisted on helping _him_ out, then we might have already found Hiryuu!"

"I'm never relying on you to save me from anything," David said , irritably.

"Hey, you should be greatful, I'm paying for your room."

"You already would have paid for it for yourself," David said.

David and Kristyn locked on each other in a death stare.

"Hey look, here, shrimp, you pay for your own half of the room!"

"Half? There's two of you and one of me, plus all I got was this dinky cot!"

The two of them started shooting mental death rays at each other.

"Come on, you two," Myra said. "This is no time to pick little fights! We've got to catch that Hiryuu!"

Myra was beaming that annoyingly happy smile of hers and the two others only silently shot death rays at each other again.

Kristyn paid the whole bill for Myra's sake. ("We took him to the room and he didn't have any say in being able or willing to pay, and that's only fair!") David parted from them and had headed to the center of town toward the gunsmiths. He had lost his gun in the fire.

Myra and Kristyn tried to ask everyone who had been in the April Saloon whether or not they had seen anyone suspicious with a blow torch or some kind of flame device. They had little luck.

"I don't think anyone saw him, Kristyn. Maybe he wasn't in the inn before he struck," Myra said, thoughtfully.

"I don't know, Myra. It seems as though there wasn't anything suspicious to anyone who had been in the building. That one lady said she had heard heavy creaking like there was something enormous in the next room. Then suddenly the wall burst into flame. He's probably a gigantic man, that means that he must have come in the inn from the outside. She said the room had been a vacancy, maybe he came in from the vacant room."

"Kristyn?" Myra said looking at a few specks approaching the city. They were on motorcycles. As they came closer the engines could be heard roaring. They drove right down the main street of April kicking up dust at the onlookers.

It was the Rider Gang. They stopped in front of the gun shop and looked at the sign. One of the riders raised his gun and blew away the sign on the building. The crowd in the streets suddenly became a mob of people fleeing into alleyways or shops.

"Come out of there, Marcus Green! You haven't paid your taxes!" the head rider said.

The gang burst into the shop. From a shop across the street came a bounty hunter. The Rider gang leader was wanted for thirty thousand double dollars. Suddenly the gang came flying out of the gun store without their firearms just before a jet of fire burst out from all the windows and the door, which was blown off its hinges. The bounty hunter looked from the leader to the smoke from the flames.

Someone inside the shop screamed.

"Hiryuu the Flame! Hiryuu the Flame!"

Myra and Kristyn looked at each other and broke into a run towards the gunshop. As they got close to the shop Kristen pulled out a fake gold watch, which was very hard to prove to be unauthentic.

"Hello?" Kristyn called at the door of the gunshop. "I'm Kristyn Paine, and this is Myra Thompson. We're from the Bernardelli In-"

A ball of flame suddenly shot out the door of the shop scaring the insurance girls. Myra hid behind Kristyn and the girls jumped back a bit.

Myra pushed Kristyn forward a little and backed away. Kristyn caught Myra by the collar and pointed into the store. There were several people still inside hiding and not daring to move.

"Mr. Hiryuu, sir, we mean you no harm. We're from the Bernardelli Insurance Society and we just wanted to have a little talk with you."

"Ha!" a monstrous voice answered in return. "Talk about my what is it? $$10 000 000 000 bounty? I think not. Even little schoolgirls want the bounty now, eh?"

"We want to reduce the property damage you've caused! But, please I beg of you. Let the people in the store go."

"I have no need to harm them they can leave whenever they want!" the voice said. There was a sudden yell and David came flying out of the gunshop. Then a few of the others ran out, also.

"We want to have a business arrangement with you, Mr. Hiryuu, sir!" Kristyn said hiding outside of the doorway. "To show our gratitude we have a very expensive antique watch said to date back to the origins of Gunsmoke beautifully handmade and initialed HTF in 24 karat gold plating. It has several handcut diamonds to accent the beautiful handiwork of the watches golden hands."

"He's gone," Myra said peering through the window on the other side. Kristyn looked into the store. The back door was hanging wide open. Some several people in the alleyway peered into the shop through the door to see what the ruckus was about.

"He escaped, Kristyn!" Myra said.

"Did you see who came out through that door?" Kristyn asked one of the townsfolk looking into the shop from the rear.

"There was no one there, it just burst open and there was the sound of someone running and screaming.

Kristyn looked back at the kid cringing in fear on the ground and the other people who were in the shop hiding in a ditch on the other side of the street. Hiryuu didn't just disappear, did he?

"Did any of you see him?" Kristyn asked the people getting up out of the ditch.

All the people shook their head no except one. Kristyn slumped and eyed David sharply. She walked down off the shop's porch with Myra.

"What did he look like David?" Myra said, as though it was a great suspense.

"Well, I don't know if you could say 'he'," David said, his eyes staring off in the distance. "His face was like a lizard or a snake with two horns that came out backwards on his head like… he looked like a dragon. And he had on a black trench coat and his eyes! They were…"

David paused. He looked directly at Myra. "They were bright red, with slits."

Myra gasped as though this was the most shocking thing of all. She wanted to console with David but she held her tongue, remembering that he didn't want anyone to know.

"Are you pulling my leg?" Kristyn said bluntly. " 'Cause if you are I'll take your tongue and rip it out and shove it up -"

"Krisyn!" Myra scolded. "Believe me, he would never lie about something like that!"

"Why not!"

Myra scratched her neck as she said, "I think that that is not a story, he would be capable of making up."

"You're right he's got the brains of your average thomas," Kristyn said squinting at David.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault that I was in was in the same place as the crazy guy two days in a row!"

Kristyn and David started yelling at each other and calling each other names like little children.

Myra walked between the two of them and put her hands on their mouths.

"Arguing is not going to make this situation any better or get us any further in the search for Hiryuu," she said in a matter-of-fact voice. She walked by the two and they looked at each other then turned away noses in the air. The bounty hunter suddenly flew by them, bumping into the both of them as the crowd went about their business.

"Watch where you're going!" the two of them yelled simultaneously then used death ray vision on each other before breaking away noses in the air.

"Come on Myra, we have an outlaw to catch," Kristyn said.

"Like that'll ever happen, old ladies catching that monster," David said just loud enough for Kristyn to hear.

Kristyn got a wild smile about her face and turned around and headed for David. Myra caught her by the collar and yawned.

"I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill him, Myra, let go. I'm gonna whip you like your Mommy should have." Myra picked up Kristyn and put her on her shoulder and started walking towards the inn.

"Hey! Put me down, I'm gonna kill him. NOBODY CALLS ME AN OLD LADY!" Kristyn yelled to David as he waved at her with a wide smile and turned tail and ran down to the next gunshop in town his black trench coat billo0wing behind him.

Next, Chapter 4: Hiryuu's New Guns


	4. Hiryuu's New Guns

Chapter 4: Hiryuu's New Guns

Hiryuu walked into the gunshop at the other end of town. He didn't feel like going back to the other shop. Though he had saved the gunshop owner's butt from that Rider Gang. He wanted to take them out next but when he took out the Gripper's gang he left his unusual nine shooter in the inn. He would get it back eventually but he didn't feel like heading back to the inn. He had killed several innocent people on top of the entire gang of Gripper's. He wondered if the insurance girls would ever figure out that he had described himself to them.

"What do you have in revolvers?" he asked the gunsmith.

"What do you want a revolver for, kid?" the gunsmith asked. It wasn't the first time that a gunsmith had refused to sell him guns.

"Well, I'm not a kid, first off," he said casually. "But my ID was in the April Saloon last night and well, there's no April Saloon anymore."

"Kid, no ID, no gun."

"Oh, well," he said. He turned to leave, accidentally dropping a full nine shot ring of bullets and a few thousand double dollars as his pocket caught on the counter.

"I'm sorry, there is a charge you can pay in the case of lost ID."

"Oh," Hiryuu said, turning innocently. He picked up his fallen bills and stuffed them in his bulging pocket.

"It's fifty percent added on any arm or ammo."

Hiryuu bought two identical, outrageously priced six-shooters and a few boxes of .22's to go along with them.

"Do you have a free shoot target so I can get the hang of these?"

"Hundred fifty a half hour free ammo in the back."

Hiryuu laid out the bills.

"Um, two twenty-five for you, kid."

Hiryuu looked up at the sign saying "Half hour free ammo target practice: $$100", and laid out the bills anyway.

He pulled a small odd claw-shaped knife and opened the two guns and removed a small mechanism from each one putting them in his pocket.

"You just ruined those guns!" the gunsmith bellowed at the kid.

"No, I made it so the the cartridge will spin freely, making it shoot a lot faster. Though this six-shooter wouldn't be as fast as my custom nine was.

"A nine-shooter no ones ever made a nine shooter, and no one could time a spinning cartridge well enough to make it shoot. Plus you have to aim you can't look at both the cartridge and the cross-hair. Kid you just blew two thousand double dollars. Now, what are you doing?" he said as the kid started scraping at the inside of the barrel with the knife.

"If the barrel is the same size as the bullet then on the first shot for a split second the bullet acts as a pin lock stopping the cartridge where it is so I can't keep firing," he said working at the barrel on the second gun. "If I widen the inside of the barrel so that it tapers down to the normal width at the half way point of the barrel then as the bullet fires the cartridge is free to spin because the bullet is not locked into the barrel until it has completely left the cartridge so it has enough give that the bullet moves sideways along with the cartridge as it exits but it still follows the end of the barrel losing little accuracy," Hiryuu finished. He dumped small metal filings out of either gun and walked into the shooting range through the door. A man turned and saw him enter and raised his eyebrows at the boy. He then turned and shot six shots, four hitting the bull's-eye.

"See what you can do kid," the man said.

Hiryuu loaded a ring into the first gun, spun the cartridge and fired six bullets into the same hole, all in under one second.

"Huh. It's off three inched to the left at only twenty-five yards," he said as the cartridge kept spinning.

The man looked at the spinning cartridge and the hole exactly three inches to the left of the center of the two inch wide bull's-eye.

"Lucky shot. But why's it still spinning?" the man said.

"I changed the gun a little, so it stays spinning. And that's six lucky shots," Hiryuu said as he ejected the six spent shots. He took another ring and did the same with the other gun.

"Huh. Good. This one's two and a half inches to the right. That makes it easy," he said ejecting the six newly spent rounds.

The man looked at the twelve empty shells on the ground and the two holes on Hiryuu's target. Then Hiryuu took both guns in one hand grabbed two rings of bullets spun the cartridges in opposite directions switched hands of one of the guns and fire all eleven bullets in the same hole, in under one second then dropped his left hand and fired the remaining bullet in his right in the same hole … in the absolute center of the bull's-eye. The man standing next to Hiryuu watched the twelve empty shells drop to the ground then looked at the seemingly single hole in the direct center of the target.

"What the hell are you?"

"I'm David," Hiryuu said cheerily. He loaded the two guns and clicked on the safeties then placed them on the inside of his trench coat so he could easily grab one in each hand.

He walked out of the firing range.

"Back so soon, eh?" the gunsmith said, expecting the kid to complain that the guns didn't work.

"Yep. Thanks," Hiryuu said and walked right out of the shop.

The other man from the firing range came out.

"Who the hell was that kid?" he said to the gunsmith.

"I hope he didn't bother you to much, sheriff. He did something really stupid to his guns before he went in there. Man, ruining two good guns like that, kid dropped two thousand for 'em."

"Gary, you should come see this."

The sheriff brought the man into the firing range. He pointed at the twenty-four empty shells on the ground and the gunsmith gasped. The kid had gotten the things to fire.

"I want you to take a look at the target."

"Only three lucky shots, then."

"No, lets go down to it and look."

The two men walked down the range to the plywood target. It had three perfect circles in it. But there weren't any other shots on or off the target.

"Where's the other ones, he had twenty-four shells on the ground."

The sheriff began taking layers of plywood of the target until there were three bullets' butts sticking out. The sheriff took out the still warm bullets and the right and left bullets pulled five other bullets out with them smashed into a perfectly cylindrical rod with obvious rings where the bullet separated. The gunsmith gasped and looked at the awkward strings of bullets, then looked at the one directly in the center and pulled out a rod of twelve bullets along with sawdust. He stared at the rod in his hand as the last bullet fell away from the other eleven. Then the sheriff told the gunsmith exactly what had happened.

"My god, that kid must have been Jesus reincarnate! He had a nine-shooter ring earlier he dropped on the ground like a clumsy fool before he bought the guns."

"You sold guns to a kid?" the sheriff suddenly said quietly. Then he realized the more important detail.

"Did you say nine- or eight-shooter?" the sheriff suddenly demanded.

"Nine, weirdest thing I ever saw."

The sheriff's face went white.

"Do you know who is known for being the only person to have a nine-shooter on Gunsmoke, and it sounds like the gunman takes one shot?" the sheriff of April said.

"No. Who?" the gunsmith said worriedly.

"Hiryuu the Flame."

Both the men looked back at the door to the range and they ran out the shop and looked up and down for the kid with sunglasses and a black trench coat seeing no one.

----

Hiryuu looked at the suns high in the air. He walked along a side street toward a bar close to the nearest plant. The plant had long been dead. He looked up at the giant light bulb-like structure and walked into the bar. Some drunks were brawling in the corner and he recognized the larger man to be the leader of the Rider Gang. He new it was too early to strike again. He decided that he would tail them for the next week. Then he would do the man of the Rider Gang in.

"Double whiskey with a twist."

Next, Chapter 5: A Gunfight in April


	5. A Gunfight in April

A Gunfight in April

After having twenty or so shots of whiseky, the barman refused to give Hiryuu any more, though he showed no signs of intoxication. He watched the Rider Gang members start to fight amongst each other over who knows what. He looked over at the doors as a man walked in.

"What can I get you Gary?" The barman asked. The man was the gunsmith Hiryuu had bought the six-shooters from. He walked over to the barman and looked around the bar. He spotted Hiryuu. The man's eyes got wide and he looked at the barman.

"Funny, that guy," the barman said. "He's had twenty shots a my strongest stuff and doesn't look like he's so much as touched a drop a alcohol."

"That's him," the gunsmith whispered.

"Who? The kid who shot a dozen bullets into a rod of lead? That kid doesn't even have a holster, an' 'e looks sixteen," the men whispered at each other.

"Actually, I'm seventeen," Hiryuu said beaming from across the nearly empty saloon.

The barman and the gunsmith looked at each other. How could he have heard that over the brawling riders? The barman turned to the kid and walked across the bar.

"Just who are you, kid?"

"I'm David," Hiryuu said smiling pleasantly.

"I hear tell you got a nine-shooter and shot perfectly with unusually modified guns at Gary's shop."

"I don't know. I didn't time it very well so I had to skip a shot so the bullets from the two guns didn't collide before they hit the target. I shot it after, but I don't think it did what I wanted it to."

The gunsmith had walked over and thought about the one bullet that fell from a line of twelve of them.

"I was really slow, too," Hiryuu added.

"How was it slow," Gary said. "My surveillance tapes looked as though you'd fired them all at the exact same frame.

"What's the frame rate?" the barman asked.

"60 frames per second," the gunsmith said.

The barman's jaw dropped. He expected 30 per _minute_ like his own surveillance system. The kid in front of him had fired eleven shots within 1/60 of a second to the exact same spot. One _sixtieth_!

"Who in God's name are you?"

"I'm David," Hiryuu beamed.

"Is that so?" Haierra Kayne, the leader of the Rider Gang stated.

----

Myra followed Kristyn into the inn. They hadn't found a single trace of Hiryuu anywhere. They got as far as the stairs when a harsh woman's voice called to them.

"You gals' Kristyn an' Myra?" the lady behind the desk asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You have a call. Here's the message," she said holding a slip of paper with only a number written on it.

"Who is it?" Myra asked.

"It's … the boss," Kristyn said, panicking.

They went to their room.

"I have to go to the bathroom, you call, kay?" Kristyn said, gleaming.

"I was going to say that first!" Myra complained.

Kristyn went into the bathroom when the phone rang. Myra didn't have a chance to step towards the phone when Kristyn answered it.

"Hello, Mr. Rockafeller. … Yes he did, Mr. Rockafeller. … Well, the only possible eyewitness was insane, Mr. Rockafeller. … He said that Hiryuu the Flame was a dragon, Mr. Rockafeller. … We can't find any trace of him, Mr. Rock- … Yes, Mi- … No, Mr. Rocka- … We will, Mr. Rockafeller, sir."

"Who was it?" Myra asked. Kristyn looked at her like she was crazy.

"Let's go to sleep, Myra. The boss is going to rip us apart if we don't find him tomorrow."

----

Myra finished a slice of toast and the two girls set out from the inn to continue the search for Hiryuu when a boy burst in.

"Some kid in black named David and Four Barrel Kayne are going to have a draw in front of the gunsmith shop in ten minutes!" the boy yelled suddenly.

"That man's name rhymes with yours!" Myra said brightly to Kristyn.

"That David kid is going to get killed!" Kristyn said, thinking of the awkward boy that they had run into at the bar and saved from the fire, not to mention Kristyn had to pay a room for.

Kristyn remembered that Haierra Kayne was the leader of the Riders, they had been the ones who first fled the shop Hiryuu had been at. Maybe they had seen him.

The two girls, and about everyone else in town, ran to the scene of the gunfight. Kristyn couldn't see a thing through the crowd. Myra peered out above the sea of heads like a tree over grass in a field.

"Hey look it's David," Myra beamed down at Kristyn who only saw the shoulders of everyone around her. "I hope he wins."

"Tell me what's going on, I can't see a damn thing."

"They're looking at each other, now there turning, now taking paces."

----

"… Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine…"

Click. BANG!

Hiryuu barely dodged a hit in the shoulder. Click, click, click. He opened his cartridge.

"I forgot to load it!"

The man across from him looked at the frantic kid, then let loose a shower of bullets from his four barrel sawn-off shotgun.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

Hiryuu dodged as each wave of shot whizzed passed him, making it look like he was doing the moon walk. The shots stopped and Hiryuu kept going for a few seconds.

Haierra Kayne looked at this crazy, but lucky as all hell, fool.

"How the…"

Hiryuu looked at the paused man and pulled out a single bullet from his pocket without anyone noticing. He suddenly loaded the gun.

BBAANNGG!

The two looked at each other.

"Heh!"

"Heh!"

They fell backwards simultaneously.

----

The crowd gasped. Myra thought for a second.

"When that man was hit he moved backwards a little from David's little gun, but you wouldn't have known David was hit by anything and he was hit from that big gun. For some reason that doesn't make sense," she said to Kristyn.

"What are you talking about? What happened?"

"They both fell down. They killed each other," Myra said

"Are you telling me that that brat loaded his gun and shot Kayne before Kayne had the chance to shoot first?" Kristyn said shocked the kid had killed such an outlaw.

----

The kid lay on the ground his gun a few inches from his hand and his oval glasses lying next to his face in the sand. Kayne lay there also, his shotgun fallen from his grip and his cowboy hat laying on the ground above his head, blank eyes staring at the sky.

The doctor moved forward and checked Four Barrel Kayne for a pulse. He couldn't find one. The runt had killed Four Barrel Kayne! The doctor went over to the kid and checked his pulse. None either.

"They're both dead!" the doctor said to the anticipating crowd. The only sound heard was the wind between the buildings and the people's own hearts beating wildly in there ears. The tension could dull a knife. Then, slowly, people began to murmur about the death of Kayne and eventually some started to disperse.

Then there was a sputtering sound.

The doctor turned and looked at the kid. He had just coughed up a good amount of blood. Everyone was quiet, again. The doctor checked the kid's pulse again, more thoroughly. Still, nothing. But then the kid coughed again and gasped at the air surging into his lungs. His eyes shot open and the doctor jumped back. The kid shot up. He saw his glasses next to him and put them on. The doctor looked at him like he was a freak.

"You were just dead!" he said. But the image of those eyes. He couldn't force it from his head. Was this kid him?

The kid looked up at the doctor turned to his side and threw up on the ground. There were several lead pellets in the blood on the ground. The kid threw up again expelling more of the lead shot.

Then he slowly stood up looked at the corpse twenty paces away and turned the other way as he walked down the street. His back was stained with blood and there were holes that showed exit wounds from the shot where his heart was. Or at least where it should be.

The kid kept walking, right out of town into the west.

The doctor looked at the speck in the distance.

"That's him," he said, starting to laugh. "That was him. He he he. That was Hiryuu the Flame. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Several heads turned in his direction.

"What are you talking about old man?"

"Those eyes, I will never forget the first time I saw those eyes," the doctor said, quickly becoming solemn. "I saw Hiryuu the Flame once before, but he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with shorter black hair. But I saw his eyes, when he burned down the saloon in April twenty-five years ago. He told me to run, and I did. Those were the same eyes."

"How can you tell for sure those were 'his eyes', old man?"

"If you'd seen them, you would never forget those red eyes."

----

"Kristyn, that man said that David was Hiryuu the Flame!" Myra said in shock.

"That screwball? That is completely impossible," Kristyn said. "How could that twerp be the famous outlaw?"

"Vash was a famous outlaw but he was like David," Myra said.

"It doesn't matter. We've got a lead. I figured something out, Myra."

Kristyn dug into her case and pulled out a neatly folded map.

"Hiryuu first struck here two weeks ago, in this small town. Then he struck in this small town, here," she said tracing a line to the west. "Then he struck in March and here in April."

Her finger traced a straight line through the cities in a direction westward and a little north. It led straight to the small town of New Kansas.

"He's struck the oldest saloon in each city, if we beat him to New Kansas and wait for him, he'll come to us."

Next, Chapter 6: The Old New Kansas Saloon


	6. The Old New Kansas Saloon

Chapter 6: The Old New Kansas Saloon

Myra and Kristyn arrived in New Kansas on their thomases. The town was very rundown in comparison to the upkeep of the city of April. There were several drunks walking up and down the street and a lot of other people looking at the two girls awkwardly.

"Het babe, wanna get some dinner?" a drunk asked Kristyn. He fell down with the imprint of Kristyn's boot on his face.

The whole town was comprised of two streets that crossed at a dry fountain in the middle. The plant was off to the north end of the city. It seemed to hover ominously in the twilight. The two girls slowly approached the main saloon. It looked old enough to be the oldest in town. Myra read the sign aloud.

"The Old New Kansas Saloon, first erected building in this humble city."

"That's what we want."

The sounds of drunken ecstasy flowed out the double doors. They tied off their thomases on a pole where another one was and walked into the bar. The place was the most lively thing they had ever seen. They saw drunk men brawling and a few couples doing things they shouldn't be doing. The entire bar seemed to be in celebration.

"Double whiskey with a twist," a familiar voice said.

"You!" Kristyn said, though it was drowned out by the ruckus of the bar.

"If it isn't the insurance girls!" Hiryuu said turning on the barstool like a little kid then stopping facing the girls, smiling brightly.

"How are you doing David?" Myra said just as brightly.

"Great, how about you two girls, any luck finding Hiryuu?"

"I thought you were Hiryuu, David," Myra said confused.

"He is not Hiryuu, Myra," Kristyn shouted, quieting the bar a little. A _little_. "Why the heck are you here? And how the heck did you rise from the dead or whatever?"

"I was never dead in the first place," David said.

"You were shot by a four barrel shotgun right here," she said poking his chest.

"Owww!" Hiryuu whined. "Why did you have to touch it? That hurts, you know? Geez!"

"Cry baby."

"He shot me with a shotgun, you expect me to just be perfectly fine?"

Myra noticed his wound was still bloody under his shirt.

"You should see a doctor!" she said, full of concern.

"He should see an exorcist!" Kristyn said to Myra.

"No, I'm fine really, I don't need any help. I have had worse," he said, remembering the time he woke up in a buried coffin. And that time he wasn't even in the gunfight.

"So how did you do it? Did you have a bulletproof vest on or something. How did you do it?"

"I didn't have anything. I was unconscious," he said, very sincerely.

"Then what are you, are you some kind of wizard or something?" Kristyn said, then squinting, "Are you human?"

"What, do I look like, a thomas?"

"I don't like that tone of voice young man."

"Young man? I'm older than you are!"

"You think I look that young?" Kristyn said, suddenly cheery.

"NO, I'm really, really, _really_ old. I just look seventeen."

"Are you saying I'm old!"

"Maybe thiry-five," he said.

Hiryuu received a blow in the face from Kristyn's steel case.

"That's funny," Myra said, laughing. She also received a blow from the case.

The two sat dazed as Kristyn stormed off.

----

Toyuki looked up at the palace of Kyoto and he swung the katana around easily as though it was an extension of his body. For some reason he felt as though the sword was giving him stronger senses. He could see every detail of the sword down to the most intricate stitch of the leather bound handle to the fine crystal-like shimmer the blade gave. He felt it. It was smoother than any metal and had the quality of a perfect mirror. Oddly, only one side of the sword was a blade. The opposite side was round and blunt, making the sword resemble a very long claw that ended in a very slight hook. It was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Toyuki started running up the steps fueled by his anger at the emperor. He sliced through the crack between the doors and heard the large bar holding the giant doors shut fall to the ground in two pieces. He pushed the door slowly open. There was no one in the lavish giant foyer to the palace. A man came out of a door up a small set of stairs to the side of the room and Toyuki flew up the stairs and cut them man down. His sword shimmered red.

He saw several others in the room and he attacked swiftly and silently. None of the men had seen him. Toyuki felt as though he had a power that he had never felt before. He was so fast. And was in such great control over himself. He headed out and into the foyer and climbed the main staircase. His mind worked fast. He flew into another side room where several warrior leaders were planning some attack. He cut down the first and second man easily but the last man put up a larger fight. He had his sword.

"What is the meaning of this?" the man said, the two swords held strong against each other.

"I will single-handedly kill this entire government for what it has done. You have destroyed my home my family, my friends, and their families. You left only me. This was where you made a mistake," Toyuki said as he brought back his sword and swung forth with enough force to cut through the man's sword and slice deep into the man's chest.

He removed it from the dead man and it dripped in the ruby color. Toyuki proceeded through every room in this fashion, cutting down every man and woman in the palace until he got to the emperor's chambers.

He kicked through the elegant double doors. The emperor sat with his wife and daughter on his daughter's bed telling her a bedtime story. The two parents looked at the boy at the door, with the ruby red sword.

"Good evening," the emperor said, his face lacking emotion.

"You are a snake!" Toyuki said looking at the young girl. "You know what they did to my sister? When they killed everyone in the village. The soldier, _your _soldier, came into our room. He took out his sword and slit her throat. You know what he did to her next?"

The emperors expression remained blank.

----

Hiryuu woke with a start. He was at the bar in the saloon. He had fallen asleep in his seat.

"You're awake then," the barman said. The entire room was empty except for him the barman and a waitress cleaning tables. "We closed an hour ago."

"What time is it?"

"Five after one."

"Will you still sell me a few shots?"

"Double an' a twist, right?"

"Thanks."

"Hell, more money for me, I ain't doin' it for you," the barman said smiling.

Hiryuu shifted his coat. There was blood on it, and on the bar where he had lain against it. The barman noticed the stain on his coat.

"You alright, kid?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Hiryuu said.

"You should get that checked out."

"I've had a lot worse," Hiryuu said, remembering when he had been shot so many times you could see through his chest.

"It looks like you took a shotgun to the chest," the barman said, looking at the shot glass he was cleaning.

"It does look that way, doesn't it?"

"A four barrel shotgun."

Hiryuu looked at the barman. He smiled a little. The barman cracked a smile and set the shot glass in front of Hiryuu.

----

Kristyn woke up and looked at the clock. She had sat at the front of the saloon for most of the previous night. No one came in but many left. She left when the last person there was David, out cold from drinking at the bar. It was now ten fifteen.

"Myra it's time to get up," she said. No reply. "Myra, come on! Myra?"

The room was empty and Myra's bed was disheveled and her gun was no longer lying against the wall. Where was she, now?

Kristyn packed up and went out to find her. As she walked over to the saloon they had visited last night she saw Myra and David talking cheerily on the porch.

"So, how did you wake back up?" Myra said in a hushed tone. "I don't get what you did."

"Honestly, I don't know exactly what happened to me. I got shot, passed out, and woke up. It's happened a billion times before, too," he said.

"So if you get shot you don't die? Are you magical or something?" Myra said as Kristyn approached them.

"More like cursed," Hiryuu told her.

"What are you talking about?" Kristyn interjected. "Are you going to tell us what you are?"

"Hiryuu was telling me about that!" Myra said, smiling very happily.

"Myra how many times do I have to tell you. David is _not_ Hiryuu," Kristyn said.

"But he said he was," Myra said.

"You're claiming to be Hiryuu the Flame?" Kristyn said furiously.

"I'm not claiming, I am Hiryuu," he said, not loud enough for anyone other than the insurance girls to hear.

"And I'm Meryl Stryfe," Kristyn said, arrogantly.

"Can I be Millie!" Myra asked joyously.

Kristyn gave her the "you-said-something-dumb" look.

"So, why _are_ you here?" Kristyn said looking him straight in the eye.

"I'm on my way to October."

Kristyn suddenly thought back to her map. October was three cities further to the west in her line of cities Hiryuu was striking. David must have been chasing Hiryuu also. He was going for the $$10 000 000 000 reward. Kristyn thought she had him figured out.

"I get it," she said.

"Get what?" Hiryuu and Myra asked.

"You want the reward."

Hiryuu looked at Kristyn like she had said something offensive. Hiryuu wanted to yell that it wasn't his fault that there was a bounty on his head expensive enough to by an entire city, but he didn't want anyone around him to hear it, so he kept his mouth shut. Kristyn took it that she was right from this.

"I'll see you later then," Kristyn said. She walked into the saloon to wait for Hiryuu to come in. From what she had gathered the man had to be relatively large and have some kind of flame weapon stowed away. This meant that no one who walked into the saloon the whole day could have been him. The only person who qualified by her description she recognized to be Red Rick, the notorious leader of the Red Boys, a group of outlaws that held their base here in New Kansas. She watched the man walk in with a large case that probably held his more notorious collection of guns. Three rifles, three pistols, three eight-shot revolvers, and three triple barrel shotguns were inside. The case was a even a triangular prism. This man had an obsession with three. Only three people were ever in his gang. And if you wanted to be in his squad you had to duel one of the current members to the death. That way the better man won.

Sure enough three freakishly murderous men followed him in. David walked into the saloon as well. He went over to the bar and said:

"Double whiskey with a twist."

"You got a deathwish, kid?" the barman said as Red Rick walked up behind Hiryuu.

"You're in my seat, bitch!" Red Rick said, very loudly.

The bar was instantaneously silent. No one, _no one_, ever sat in Red Rick's seat and lived to see the next sunrise. That was how the sheriff had died, and the town hadn't had a sheriff for six months because no one could stand up against Red Rick, who had named himself sheriff.

"I'm sorry, sir, I was unaware this seat belonged to anyone," Hiryuu said facing the barman. Red Rick picked Hiryuu up by the collar and threw him over the bar.

Several of the people in the saloon were wise enough to get out of it. Several others stayed to watch. Hiryuu suddenly lunged up from behind the bar and used Red Ricks face as a step to jump up and swing himself up into the buildings rafters.

"Is this your seat?" he said leaning against a roof truss. He sprang across between the rafters like a rabbit and sat on one further away. "And is this one?"

"Why you little…" Red Rick grabbed a revolver from his case and shot where Hiryuu had just been. Everyone left in the bar suddenly hightailed it out of there, except Kristyn who hid behind a table she had knocked over to watch Hiryuu fighting the Red Boys. "Where the hell-"

Hiryuu landed on top of Red Rick and held an odd claw shaped knife against his neck.

"Any of you four move and Red Rick dies," Hiryuu said pressing the claw knife against the man he was sitting on the shoulders. "It's time for you to leave Kristyn," he added looking over at the table she was hiding behind. Kristyn knew he hadn't seen her, he had been facing away from her the whole time so how could he know she was there.

A crystal vase in front of her exploded as a gun fired.

"Get out, NOW!" Hiryuu yelled.

She didn't need to be told twice. She ran as fast as she could out the door, glancing sideways at the kid whose revolver was still smoking.

Next, Chapter 7: Hiryuu the Flame Discovered


	7. Hiryuu the Flame Discovered

Chapter 7: Hiryuu the Flame Discovered

Hiryuu could smell the blood running from Red Rick's neck. It was unusually sweet smelling. The three men around him were watching him closely. Hiryuu was looking at the one on the left and he raised his hand with the revolver to his glasses taking them off and polishing them. The three men saw his eyes. Bright red with wide slits like a cat when it's hunting. He looked at all three of them directly in the eye. As he moved his eyes to the one on the right. The man on the left raised his gun and there was the sound of a shot. The man fell dead, while Hiryuu's eyes never left the man on the right. Red Rick shifted his weight a little and the knife pressed harder on his neck.

"Now, if the two of you drop all your weapons on the floor, and put your hands on your head, you can walk out alive," he said his eyes driving into the two who remained. About half a dozen guns and a dozen knives were suddenly dropped onto the ground. The men raised their hands behind their heads and swiftly walked out of the saloon.

Hiryuu jumped forward doing a flip off Red Rick and landing facing him, revolver aiming between the mans eyes.

"Do you want to fight fair or dirty?" Hiryuu said.

Red Rick saw Hiryuu's eyes and looked at them unable to answer. Hiryuu shot between Red Ricks feet.

"Give me an answer or die now."

"Dirty!" Rick said dodging left and firing seven shots into the chest of Hiryuu.

Hiryuu stood there. He looked down at his now running blood seeping down his shirt. Then looked at Red Rick, shocked.

"That is probably the fastest I have ever seen anyone fire other than me," Hiryuu said bluntly. "You want a dirty fight you got one."

A sickening scream came from the Old New Kansas Saloon as a round of gunfire suddenly burst out into the night. There was a deafening roar and the sound of a fire starting very quickly.

Then a huge creature burst through the front doorway, and fell to the ground in the street and lost consciousness.

----

Several people looked at the monster lying on the ground as the saloon burned. No one was closer to it than twenty yards. Kristyn moved to the front of the small crowd. She saw the creature. The light of the fire danced upon it, making it's red scales shimmer. Ridges ran down its back from head to tip of the tail. Its claws were nine inches long and metallic. It was fourteen feet long with wings that had a thirty foot wingspan if they were open. They were retracted to its sides and had similar metallic claws. Its body was finely carved with strong muscles. Its arms were built very much like a man's but three times the size and its legs were extremely thick with muscles.

Someone from the crowd pulled out a rifle and started to approach the giant animal. He cocked the gun and got right next to the dragon and gave it a little nudge in the back with his foot. Black liquid was pooling below the animal. It was bleeding heavily all over its back and stomach. They were holes from gunshots. The man noticed it was breathing very slowly. Its side rose about an inch and fell back every ten or so seconds. The man quickly backed away.

Kristyn stared at the monstrous beast. David hadn't lied. Hiryuu the Flame was a dragon. This explained why he used flame as his weapon. Kristyn had only seen dragons in children's books about knights in shining armor in some magical land.

One of the two Red Boys who had escaped the monster of an outlaw walked toward it and pulled a small handgun out. He shot the monster in the head several times. Its breathing stopped. The black blood ran out its mouth and its jaw hung open a little showing its teeth were stained red. But its own blood was black. It had killed Red Rick. The man shot the monster again and again until all his gun did was click its hammer at an empty chamber. He started beating the thing's head with his foot.

----

Toyuki approached the emperor and his wife. The sword in his hand felt as though it had a power over him he raised the sword and felt it come down through the shoulder of the man before him. He pulled it out and cut through the emperor's wife as well. Then he raised it once more and looked at the girl.

----

"Toyuki!" his sister screamed just before the blade entered her neck. His sister fell into the bed headless. Toyuki ran to his room and hid in a small chest. He heard the sound of a sword slashing and slashing and slashing. After ten minutes the slashes had died down to squishing sounds then just a sword slicing through fabric of a mattress. Two days Toyuki waited in the chest. When he got out he went to the room where his sister, whom he had so loved, was. He opened the door and screamed.

----

"Koyumi!" the girl screamed.

The sword clattered to the ground. Toyuki fell on his hands and knees. He turned and saw the boy peering through the door. The boy walked in. He saw the bloody figures on the ground and tears filled his eyes. Toyuki picked up the sword again feeling its power winding through him. He turned the blade towards himself and pushed it through his heart.

It was two feet into him, but never came out the other side. Toyuki fell to the ground. The two children ran out of the room, out of the palace, out of Kyoto. Toyuki could still see. Oddly he felt his senses becoming stronger, his vision sharpened, and his hearing became extremely clear, his sense of smell became strong enough to decipher between the blood of the two dead bodies in front of him. Then his sense of feeling seemed to die away. He could just barely tell that he was touching the floor. He couldn't move, though he didn't try to. A pool of black liquid was pouring from his chest.

Suddenly there was a huge light and Toyuki felt as though his entire body was on fire. He saw the flames engulfing him in the mirror next to him. He watched in horror and agony as his body changed. The sword disappeared into his chest and he suddenly rapidly increased in size. His arms and legs distorted and grew. His back extended past his legs and felt as though it was widening past his sides. His face lengthened, his muscles and innards twisted and distorted wildly. Then the pain and the fire and the changing stopped. Toyuki opened his eyes and flew backwards away from the mirror crashing into a pillar holding up the roof. The roof creaked threateningly and Toyuki burst through the doors sending shards of wood everywhere. He shoved his way through the hallway, the walls giving way to his width. It led to the next one and out to the stairs in the massive spacious foyer. At the bottom was the old woman.

"You failed, you are cursed to forever suffer through killing, and not being killed," the woman said. He felt himself propelled forward and the woman vanished. He charged through the giant palace doors and ran down the steps tripping and crashing down them under his new awkward weight proportions. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked back as some of the roof came crashing down causing another portion of the palace to calapse and another until it was only a stairway to wooden ruins.

Suddenly Toyuki felt a great hunger. He knew what it was he needed, but he couldn't stop himself. He roared in protest to his muscles propelling him toward the city full of people.

----

The man's feet were throbbing with pain as he and his partner kicked the beast, thinking it was dead. Hiryuu's eyes suddenly opened as they proceeded to beat him. The man kicking his head froze. He backed away slowly, the eye following him backwards. Several of the people gasped as they noticed the dragon's eyes studying them. He started to get up and people started screaming and running away. The man who had remained beating the dragon looked up at it as it got up, he was having a heart attack. The razor claws entered his chest and Hiryuu threw him at the blazing pile that was once a building.

Kristyn tried to pull Myra away but Myra was fixed to the spot. Hiryuu got up on his hind legs towering over the two girls. Someone had pulled out a gun and started shooting wildly at him. He returned a ball of fire to the man and the man ran screaming blindly into the funeral pyre of the Old New Kansas Saloon.

Hiryuu looked back at the two girls and opened his wings. He jumped upwards and thrust himself into the air. Hiryuu flew west until he couldn't keep himself in the air from blood loss and dropped to the ground roughly. He reverted to his human form and started walking west,red blood trailing him in the sand.

----

Myra stood there looking at the flaming building. Kristyn had tried to pull her.

"Myra we have to follow him, we need to go, _now!_" she said, Myra saw a car approaching from the east.

"Hey you, stop!" Myra said, running towards the car. Her gunstrap snapped as she ran and she picked up the giant gun and put it on her shoulder. The driver saw the fire and Myra with the gun and ditched his jeep. Myra got in and revved the engine. She threw sand into the air as she drove off and stopped fast to pick up Kristyn.

"Get in we're going to help Hiryuu!" Myra said. Kristyn had little choice.

Myra gunned the engine and shifted the gears grinding them terribly.

"Myra!" Kristyn said as they sped through the city as people dodged them. "Have you ever driven a car?"

"Nope!" Myra answered beaming at Kristyn.

"EYES ON THE ROAD!"

----

Hiryuu heard an engine roaring behind him. He saw the lights of the car two miles away. He looked at the trail of blood he had made and stopped, finding it useless to try to hide or fly away. He fell to the ground, very much weakened by the loos of blood. His body felt as though there were thirty knives stabbed into him. The car approached quickly and started to slow down as it got close, gears grinding terribly as it suddenly jerked to a stop fifteen feet away.

"David?" Kristen said, looking at the boy. "You _are_ Hiryuu the Flame! Oh, my God. We've been with him this whole time!"

"It's only been four days," Hiryuu said.

Myra jumped out of the car and picked Hiryuu up. She set him gently into the back seat and Kristyn jumped into the driver side before anyone could do anything. Myra sat next to Hiryuu and Kristyn started off towards Green City.

Hiryuu came in and out of consciousness until they reached Green City two hours later. The sky was starting to brighten as they arrived in Green City. Kristyn followed signs through this usually bustling urban city towards the hospital. There, they stopped the stolen jeep outside the front doors and Myra carried the bloody Hiryuu into the hospital.

"Someone help!" Myra said. "He is going to bleed to death."

A nurse rushed into a door and suddenly two men and a stretcher came flying out of the door. They came to the girls and gently moved Hiryuu onto the stretcher.

"What the hell happened to this poor boy?" one man asked the other man stopped pushing the stretcher. "What is it?"

"His eyes! He's…"

"Help him now or I'll blow this hospital to pieces!"

Myra was aiming her gun at the two men as Kristyn pulled two pistols from her case as well. The men looked at each other and pushed the stretcher through the doors at gunpoint as the girls followed them into the hospital.

Next, Chapter 8: Prey of Prey, Hunter of Hunters


	8. Prey of Prey, Hunter of Hunters

Chapter 8: Prey of Prey, Hunter of Hunters

Hiryuu's body was so mangled the doctor's didn't know how he could be alive. He had no pulse, he wasn't breathing, yet he would often wake up, well aware of what was around him for a few minutes then he would seem dead again. The doctor stitched most of his wounds anyway noticing that there were other large, but old, scars all over him. After a day and 2,300 stitches the doctor said he had done all he could do, and with the gun-wielding insurance girls permission the doctor and his assistants left the room.

Hiryuu woke up for the umpteenth time. He looked over and saw the girls sitting down next to him. This time though he shot up into the air.

"How long have we been at this hospital?" he demanded.

"Since the night before last," Myra said. The morning sun was shining through the window.

"I can't stay here!" he said, pain searing through him as he got out of the bed. He suddenly realized that he was wearing only a bloody hospital gown. "Where are my clothes?"

"Um, you didn't have any when we found you, remember?" Kristyn said sheepishly.

"You mean I left it all in the … saloon?" he said so no one else would hear.

"You don't have to be quiet. Everyone found out who you are. One of the doctor's knew you by your eyes," Myra said.

"WHAT!" Hiryuu quite literally roared. "That means that every outlaw, bounty hunter, sheriff and their mothers are probably all outside the hospital either trying to get in or waiting until I come out! How long has anyone known?"

"They've known since we got here."

"That is very not good," Hiryuu said in a low tone.

Hiryuu looked out the hallway and back into the room.

"You girls wait outside for a minute," he said.

The two girls waited outside the door for a minute. They heard the sound of the stretcher being knocked over and Hiryuu struggling to do something. When the door opened again Hiryuu had one of the claw shaped knives and his finger nail was missing on his left pinky. Kristyn looked at the bloody finger and the knife with a black liquid at the end.

"Just in case. Let's go," Hiryuu said as though they were going to rob a bank or something.

"That is the grossest thing I have ever seen," she said realizing what the knife really was.

The three of them snuck down the hall and when they got to the end they looked out at the waiting room. There did seem to be several suspicious people there. They all seemed very much occupied with each other. They all looked around at each other knowing that only one of them would soon be a rich man.

There was an empty stretcher against the wall next to the three in the hallway. Hiryuu saw it and brought it to the two girls. He looked at them and devised a plan.

----

The door to the waiting room opened and the two girls walked out with the stretcher. One of the men in the room saw the blanket covered stretcher and figured out what was going on. The man got up and casually walked towards the girls who stopped where they were.

"Is there a problem, sir?" Myra asked in a very professional voice.

"Since when does stretchers come out of the hospital?" he said seeing the blanket's shape. "Did y'all honestly think that you would be able to fool all a us with that monster hidden under a blanket? 'Cause I ain't that dumb, ladies. Hiryuu the Flame is mine, thank you very much," he said taking the heavy stretcher and bursting out the front doors. Every bounty hunter, sheriff, and outlaw in the waiting room suddenly dashed out after the man. Cars started up and there was a giant chase before you knew it. The girls lay trampled in the waiting room.

"That was not worth all that pain," Kristyn said looking out from under the dazed Myra. "Get off a me!" she yelled up at Myra who only saw stars.

"Is it clear?" Hiryuu asked from behind the counter.

"It's clear. Now help me get this thomas-brained good for nothing dead weight off me!"

Hiryuu pulled Myra up and Kristyn felt her back snap. She thought it was very ironic that she gets hurt and then has to run _out_ of the hospital rather than into it. The two of them dragged the senseless Myra to the car. Hiryuu hid under the back seat. They took off without any of the hospital workers noticing them over the ruckus of bounty hunters.

"Alright, just who or what the hell are you and where did you come from?" Kristyn said to Hiryuu hiding under the seat.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me! I think I've seen more than I would have believed already."

"Well, I'm a dragon and I'm somewhere around a thousand years old, and I-"

"What! Gunsmoke hasn't been around for that long!" Kristyn said, not believing him.

"I'm not originally from Gunsmoke."

"How the hell did you get here then?"

"The same way your great great great grandparents came here."

"You mean you're from Earth? Before the exodus from Earth? That's impossible."

"As impossible as it is that your sources of power are humanoid powerhouses," Hiryuu pointed out bluntly.

"So what are you saying? You're from Earth and you were born in the middle ages."

"Somewhere in the early fifteen hundreds in a country called Japan, yeah. But I wasn't born like this. I was as normal as anyone for seventeen years."

"I don't believe you," Kristyn said.

"I told you so."

Kristyn hated one thing above any thing else, and Hiryuu just said it.

----

"Dragon? Dragon?" the man said. He burst out laughing. "Everyone knows there is no such thing as a dragon! What do you think I am, a complete idiot? If Hiryuu the Flame is a dragon then I might as well be an alien!"

"Mr. Rockafeller, sir, you can ask anyone in the town of New Kansas, Hiryuu the Flame is a dragon about fifteen feet long, red, and-"

"Kristyn, the joke is over. Continue, and you're fired!" The man slammed down the phone.

"A dragon? Really, who would believe that?" the man chuckled. He went back to work on some of his paperwork when a man came into his office.

"You should come see this, boss. The owner of the Old New Kansas Saloon has the strangest claim. But he's got pictures to prove it. What should we do?"

----

The girls saw a whole bunch of bandits fighting at the edge of the road. One of them was the one who had rushed off with the stretcher full of flower vases. They acted like they didn't notice them as they passed.

"Hey!" one of them shouted. "Those two are them! Get in the car!"

Kristyn felt her foot hit the floor of its own accord. The next thing they knew there were about twenty crazy drivers following them. Their little stolen jeep was not exactly the fastest thing on the road either.

"Myra, I could use your help! They're gaining on us!" Kristyn said rather harshly.

"You don't have to yell," Myra said, hurt.

"Myra could you just give me a hand?"

"Fine, but only if you say you're sorry," Myra said unforgiving.

"I'm sorry," Kristen said semi-politely. "Now, shoot them before they shoot us!"

Myra gave Kristyn an evil look then turned and shot down the three nearest cars with Millie's giant gun.

A pile up of about ten cars quickly appeared. The others all swerved and kept on going. Myra checked how much of Aunt Millie's ammo was left. She had seven shots, but that needed to last a while. The rest of the cars were all the slower ones anyway.

"That's all!" Kristyn said, looking at the line of cars still after them in the rear view mirrors.

"You girls have got enough trouble to deal with I'll see you later," Hiryuu said as he suddenly jumped off the back of the jeep.

Kristyn and Myra looked at each other and back behind them. Hiryuu was gone.

"Where did he go?" Myra asked the air. She didn't want him to leave.

Suddenly they realized the cars were all swerving towards the north, where the geysers were. Hiryuu was in the air well in front of the cars, a dragon flying along in loops and circles above the bounty hunters like he was enjoying himself. After a few minutes they were far enough to the north that a geyser blew one of the cars straight up and it landed on another, causing some of the less persistent, or maybe more intelligent, hunters to stop and turn around. Within an hour all the cars that had been following him were either very far south of him or they were lying in pieces from being popped up like popcorn and crashing down like meteors.

The insurance girls drove on until they reached Texas City a smaller city about 50 miles southeast of October. They looked for the oldest bar in town and within minutes realized they weren't the only ones who had figured Hiryuu's target line out. There were a bunch of thugs with weapons and lots of talk of what one could do with ten billion double dollars.

----

The young bartender looked relieved to see the two girls walk into the saloon.

"Finally got some normal people who ain't searching for some monster," the man said to himself.

"Actually we are, too," Myra said cheerfully.

"You've got to be kiddin' me. I ain't got any payin' customers today, do I?"

"We've been on the road for a while actually and we were wondering if you had a menu, maybe?"

The barmen again seemed relieved and the man waited on them graciously, since no one was getting any drinks.

While the girls ate a mysterious old woman in a hooded cloak came into the bar. Several of the men in the bar snickered as the woman walked in.

"What's a old lady doin' in a bar?"

"You gonna have a heart attack if you smell alcohol, ya old hag," one said. He suddenly fell to the ground choking.

"I may be old, but that gives you no right to lack manners," the old woman's voice cackled from under her hood as she proceeded to the bar.

The man suddenly gasped and coughed. Some of the others started cracking their knuckles but otherwise the entire bar was silent. The short woman hoisted herself up onto a barstool next to Kristyn with a little bit of difficulty. She looked over at Kristyn.

"If only I were still that age," she mumbled to herself. She waited silently looking at the barman.

"What kin I do fer you, ma'am?" he said, politely.

"Are you the owner of this bar?" the woman asked.

"No, ma'am, that'd be my father. Do ya need to see him?"

"Yes, if you could take me to him that would be nice, thank you."

The woman and the barman walked around to a door in the back of the saloon.

The bar stirred again and after a few minutes all the rowdy bounty hunters were once again rowdy. An older man walked out from where the two had gone through the door, though no one noticed.

"How long before he shows up you think?" Myra asked Kristyn at the bar.

"I don't know. It depends on how he gets here, who knows. He probably won't be here for a while though. I don't think he wants to chance getting caught this fast."

"Good evening," the older man said, sitting down next to the girls. "Are you two aware of who is rumored to be heading to this very bar to destroy everyone in it?"

"We are very much aware of that, sir. We, too, are looking for him."

"You girls are _bounty hunters_!" the man said, disbelievingly.

"No, actually we're frie--- from an insurance agency looking for Hiryuu the Flame."

"Well, ladies, if you wanna live through the night I suggest leaving this bar because I have a tip-off that he'll be burning this whole place down. They even got people with hoses at the next door shops ready to ease the fire so it doesn't get out a hand. He's got it in for the gangs, see. First, the Creoles in March, then Haierra Kayne's Riders and the Gripper's boys in April, then Red Rick in New Kansas. He's killed them all and he's after the Texas Terrors next. That's Texas Terry right there," the man said pointing over to a giant muscular man with two ladies at his side and a pair of revolvers in his hands.

"I suggest you ladies get on out or that monster is gonna barbeque you along with the main course," he finished his thumb waggling in the direction of Texas Terry.

Myra looked over at the Texas Terry. Then she said something that would have gotten any man killed instantly.

"I thought Terry was a girl's name."

The locals all hushed and the outsiders soon followed suit. Texas Terry got up from his table and looked directly at Myra.

"What did you say?" he said, critically.

"I thought Terry was a girl's name," she repeated.

There were several gasps and the locals scrambled out of the bar. The strangers to the bar looked at the man than at Myra as though it were a performance or something. Then the man raised his gun.

POW.

Everyone ducked. Including Terry.

POW.

People started looking for the source of the gunfire.

POW.

"It's outside the saloon!" someone said.

POW.

Terry listened.

POW.

_Five_, he thought.

POW. _Six._

POW. _Seven_.

POW. _Eight_.

No one breathed for a split second.

POW. _Nine! Only one person has a ninth round_._ Hiryuu the Flame_.

Texas Terry looked up from under the table as well as several others. There was complete silence. The girls looked out from under the bar. The only person standing was the old woman who had come in earlier. Kristyn looked over and saw her then…

_That's impossible!_ Kristyn thought. The woman just disappeared. She was there, and then she was not there.

There was screaming outside suddenly. Then there was the sound of more gunfire in the night. Then every front window suddenly burst inward behind a wall of flame. Some of the men got ready to fire large weapons and some of them fled to the back door. Terry's girls ran for cover behind the bar with the insurance girls. The four girls looked up at all the alcohol gleaming in jars above them. They all looked at each other and scrambled toward the exit as flames shot over their heads sending the glistening bottles and kegs to the ground suddenly erupting in flames. There was a giant crashing sound as the beast rammed its way into the bar. Men screamed like little girls as Myra turned and saw it devouring them like a dog would scarf down dog treats. She stood there completely transfixed in the doorway. She couldn't move. It made sense to her in some way that it was doing this, but at the same time it petrified her. Texas Terry himself started to run for the door Myra stood at and was caught. He disappeared in the beasts jaws almost instantly. It looked at her as the room around it burned.

----

Hiryuu saw her standing there transfixed. He stopped. One of the men ran past him and pushed her onto the ground in an attempt to escape. He fell burnt to a crisp on the other side of Myra. Myra looked back into the building at Hiryuu just as the roof started to cave in, obstructing her view. He watched her until he couldn't see her himself then turned to finish his business with the other bounty hunters before the entire building started to collapse. He felt himself rejuvenating from the heat and the fresh meat. That's how he had thought of corrupt men for years: fresh meat. The only thing he could do to keep himself from killing innocent people.

But the fear in her eyes. She was too scared to move. He would lose another friend to this hideous form. The only real friend he'd had in several centuries. He felt the roof above him come down and he lay buried in the embers for a while before losing consciousness to the heat and the pain of his body mending itself.

Next, Chapter 9: Katoma Toyuki Returns


	9. Katoma Toyuki Returns

Chapter 9: Katoma Toyuki Returns

Hiryuu woke up. He looked around. He was chained to the floor of a large cement room. The only things in it were the barred windows high above him and a steel door and some folding tables off to one side. He couldn't figure out what this was. Whatever it was he had to get out.

"It's awake!" he heard someone above him yell. He looked and saw the light from one of the windows was partially blocked by the figure of a man. There were footsteps and a few other men looked in from other windows. One of the men looked down into the cell, poking his head between the bars.

"Quicker you die, quicker you make everyone happy," the man said. "You're gonna make the four of us very rich."

"Who says I'm caught?" Hiryuu said casually. He looked at the large chains pinning down his legs and wings. It had obviously been a very rushed job, probably because whoever tied him down didn't want to be there when he woke up. Hiryuu pulled at the chains one at a time pulling the bolts out of the cement. He stood up to rip out the chains that were fastened between the bases of his wings and used his claws to break the ones holding him down at the middle of each wing. He then stretched, yawned (showing his rather toothy jaws), and sat down. He could see the men looking very fearfully at him and each other.

"So how long have I been lying in here?" he asked the ceiling. It took a few seconds for the man to answer.

"Two days."

Hiryuu was suddenly tense. If he didn't get out and track someone down in the next two days he would be responsible for a lot more innocent deaths. He had to get to October fast. He stared up at the ceiling. It was steel framed with a tin roof, but it probably couldn't hold five tons. He spread his wings and jumped up doing half a back flip and grabbing onto the steel rafters. They creaked threateningly and Hiryuu could see he was moving slowly toward the floor.

"Get off a there!", "What are you doing!", "You'll destroy the whole building!" the men shouted at him.

The ceiling finally caved and Hiryuu rode it down landing hard on his back as it swung open like a giant door. There was a gaping hole in the roof of the room and Hiryuu quickly jumped up and flew out of the room. The four men on the roof shot at him in vain as he escaped. He could hear people below in the town of Texas screaming as they saw him flying across the afternoon sky. He gained enough altitude so the only thing he could hear was the wind as he tore through the air. He loved flying but rarely got the chance ever before. Now that it really didn't matter if people saw him or not, he didn't care if they saw him soaring across the suns. The colder air of the high altitude was overwhelmingly pleasant in comparison to the squelching heat of the sandy planets surface.

The city of October loomed on the horizon and he dropped into the desert. He didn't feel like making his presence in October known too quickly, he just wanted to get there and do what he needed to do. He still wasn't even sure if she would even be there. He hoped she would be and he could get vengeance for what she had done to him. That or she would kill him in the fight, either way he would no longer have to kill anyone anymore.

Hiryuu became human as he walked toward the big city across the evening desert. He took his coat and flipped it inside out so the dark blue fabric of the inside showed. He also took his knife and trimmed his hair until it was short and stuck up in uneven black spikes. He walked onward through the desert as the wind picked up throwing the sand at him. He looked up at the city of October as dust started to obscure it and put on his sunglasses, walking onward.

----

Kristyn drove toward October, wondering whether it would stop there or continue westward. She and Myra were given a new assignment by their boss. They were to exterminate the monster known as Hiryuu the Flame. Myra had not been herself. She sat in the passenger side of the jeep and looked out at the dust storm they had headed south around. She was slouching and, worst of all, she was not smiling. Kristyn looked over at her. She had never seen her like this. What had happened to her at the saloon? What had she seen? Kristyn didn't feel like stirring her. She looked ahead at the big city to the northwest. She had never been this far west before.

They arrived in October to find it nearly completely empty. No one was out in the streets save a homeless man huddled in the door of the sheriff's office. Every window was bolted shut and every door was locked and had signs saying things like "no vacancy" or "do not enter". They got out of the car and strode down the street.

"Someone's here!" a far off voice shouted a warning.

"They're women, you idiot," an old woman's voice said, scolding the first. "Where are you from young ladies?"

Myra looked up from the ground toward the window the woman was hanging out of.

"We are waiting for him," she said, her voice very sturdy and low-toned, unlike her usual giddy pitchy self. Kristyn looked over at Myra as cracked open window shutters slammed shut up and down the street. She looked back to the dust storm in the east that would be bearing down on them very soon.

"Myra, I don't think anyone is going to let us ride the storm out in any shelter now," Kristyn said, though not accusingly. "We'll have to find a way to hide from the storm."

They went back to the jeep and parked it in a narrow alley and started putting up the canvas top. The wind started to pick up and the dust started to fog up the area. Kristyn watched the windshield suddenly become covered in sand. She looked over at Myra again.

"Are you alright?" she asked. Myra continued to stare at the dashboard. Kristyn didn't pressure her any further than she already had. She watched as even the light from the side and rear vinyl windows faded to darkness in the raging sandstorm. Darkness enveloped them.

"Did you see him?"

Kristyn looked towards her right in the complete darkness, surprised.

"Did you?" Kristyn asked in return.

"It was the most terrible thing I had ever seen," she said. "He was just a monster. Kristyn, if we hadn't gotten out I think he might have eaten us."

"Oh, come on, now. He wouldn't have hurt us. The only people he killed were people I myself would have done in if--"

"He scares me, Kristyn."

The only sound was the dying win around them. The darkness started to clear enough that they could see it was still very dusty. The car was covered in sand. The light revealed the fright on Myra's face and the surprise in Kristyn's eyes.

"If you want to head back and have someone more professional do this…" Kristyn started to say.

"No! No," Myra said. "But we're not going to kill him. We can't and we can't let anyone else try either."

Kristyn was puzzled by the sudden resolve Myra had.

"Well, we need to get this show on the road," she said getting ready to start the vehicle. She stopped staring straight forward her head cocked slightly to the side.

Myra wondered why Kristyn hesitated than saw why. There was an old woman in the middle of the road directly in front of the entrance to their alley. She was not facing them, but facing eastward toward the exit of the town.

----

"Katoma Toyuki. Long time, no see," the hag said as though he were her grandchild.

Hiryuu gave the woman a look of disgust.

"That's no longer my name. Nice to see you survived long enough to board the exodus as well, though, it's hard to exact revenge on something light-years away on a dead planet."

"Earth didn't take my fancy, either," the woman cackled. "But seeing as all you want to do is hunt me down while I'm here, I don't plan on staying long."

"Before we finish this the hard way, I want to know why you did this to me and would you undo it."

"I'm surprised you remember this dead language at all, last time I heard Japanese was over a century and a half ago. Not that that's any significant amount of time to me"

"Answer my questions."

"Because I could, and no, I won't."

"You spiteful wench, when I'm through with you, you'll wish you never met Katoma Toyuki in Kyoto."

"I thought you were Hiryuu. Hmm, I wonder why you have_ that_ name."

"Because of you," Hiryuu said in an icy voice.

----

The woman continued speaking to the unknown person in the unusual language. The hidden male voice exploded in just as unintelligible words that indicated an oncoming fight. The woman walked forward and out of site of the girls. As the sand storms remaining dust cleared the silhouettes of two giant creatures facing each other fell on the facades of the buildings on the other side of the street. Within a few seconds there was a sudden rush of air and a deep roar and dust clouded the street again. Kristyn started the car. The building to their right suddenly exploded into the alleyway as they shot the jeep backwards in reverse. Kristyn scraped the buildings on either side and came out in a small street. She turned slightly causing the jeep to skid through the sand and face into the city. She gunned the jeep's already complaining engine and watched the rear view mirror.

"Why are we running away?" Myra said.

"I didn't feel like being crushed by the building falling."

She stopped the car a good 200 yards away from the building that collapsed. She thought about the people who had been inside. Then as she watched the dust settle she saw two giant beasts, one red, one black, equivalent in size and shape. It was Hiryuu and the old woman, but they were now ungodly beasts, the black easily eluding the reds angered attacks. The black monster easily hurled the red across a few buildings, destroying them completely. The red shot fire at the black and the two of them stopped and remained in a ready stance. They seemed to be awaiting the other to move.

Instantaneously the two shot up into the air and the black chased the red. The two giant monsters locked together trying to drive the other lower in a head first dive back towards the city. They landed in front of the jeep and shot sand and pavestones into the air. When the dust cleared there was a large crater stretching from the faces of the buildings on either side of the street. The sand that was thrown into the air settled on everything again renewing the layer of sand the storm had left on the buildings.

The two girls in the jeep looked around to find the two dragons gone. There was no sign of them anywhere. Myra stuck her head out the window to search the sky.

They were gone.

----

Hiryuu tried vainly to flap his wings only to realize they were no longer there. The ground seemed so far away. His vision prospective had changed. He was human again. But he hadn't converted himself, especially not a few thousand yards in the air. He tried, again in vain, to revert to his dragon form. He could not do it. Had the hag returned him to his human self completely, and at this altitude. He searched above for her. She was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm down here," the voice cackled.

Hiryuu tried to turn through the air to see the woman. She seemed to be falling as though she was inside an invisible shield saving her from the wind. Hiryuu looked at the ground again but it seemed no closer than before. Were they that high? He could see passed Texas in the east and October was a speck below them. He even thought he saw April on the far horizon. He looked at the ground again. He must have fallen two miles, now. The wind ripped through him in a fury.

"Is it over then?" his words were lost in the ripping current of air. He realized that there was no current in the air. Everything is relative. He was falling that fast.

The ground grew closer. The wind in his ears shrill. The hag smiled. He smiled back. Her face contorted with hate and her image disintegrated. Hiryuu watched the ground coming closer. The city of October grew before him faster and faster. He watched himself approaching the city's central square. He was aimed straight for the center of the sand covered pavestones. He watched the city suddenly engulf him then …

----

The sound of a bomb going off echoed through the city. Myra saw a shaft of sand shoot high into the air. It fell slowly trailing in the wind. Kristyn gunned the sputtering jeep across an alleyway onto the main road. The city square was fuming dust. The jeep skid through the sand and halted fifty feet from the dust billowing out of the new crater in the center of the square.

Myra fanned at the dust as though her hand could clear the thirty foot wide crater in a few sweeps. After a few minutes it had cleared enough that they could see a dark object at the bottom.

The object coughed several times. It moved. It took the shape of a man as it stood up. It was Hiryuu.

He climbed out of the hole in the ground dusty with a surprised look on his face. Myra looked at him. She scrutinized him. His face especially.

"Something's different," she whispered to Kristyn.

Hiryuu brushed himself of and then seemed to be expressing some effort to do something. He looked as though he had failed and walked towards the jeep which finally stalled. Kristyn tried to start it again to no avail.

"Oh!" Myra said in her usual pleasantly surprised voice.

"What?"

She smiled and pointed at Hiryuu. Hiryuu paused confused as well. Kristyn then saw it also.

"Oh!" she said, her face crack a small smile as well.

"What is it?" Hiryuu asked the two girls. He thought they would have been frightened of him by now.

Myra seemed suddenly lost in what she saw. Hiryuu couldn't figure out what was going on.

"You're really handsome without bright red eyes," Myra said.

Hiryuu suddenly froze. His eyes weren't red? Did that mean that the hag had returned him to normal? The look of hate she had had in her eyes as he fell argued against it. Before he knew it he had rushed to the jeep's side view mirror. Dark blue eyes stared back.

Like his mother's eyes.

Next, Chapter 10: Dissapointment


	10. Disappointment

Chapter 10: Disappointment

He stared into the crater in the central square of the city. Rapid fire thoughts ran through his head. Was he really completely human again? Then how did he survive the fall? But what really bothered him was the pure hatred on the hags face. Was she disgusted because he was free of her curse? But if she was disgusted with it why would she lift it from him.

Myra and Kristyn were still sitting in the broken down jeep. Several people watched from shops' upstairs windows or just far enough down the street to see the giant hole in the ground while staying as far from possible from the man sitting at the side of it.

He looked around him, causing people to disappear into alleys and window shutters to slam shut. He chuckled softly. They were scared of Hiryuu.

But Hiryuu was gone. He was once again Toyuki Katoma

----

The bounty hunter took aim at the man sitting at the side of the hole in the center square. He had seen him before in April. He had followed Hiryuu's tracks and had finally caught up to him. He was still shocked that the kid from the attack at the gun shop in April was Hiryuu. _You're a coward aren't you? You were cornered in the shop so you hid yourself in plain sight. Too bad you're out in the open, now. Then again you were then, I shoved right passed you in search of… well, you. You sly bitch. You're dead, now._

The man's finger sat gingerly on the trigger. He took care to aim very carefully at Hiryuu's heart. There was no escaping. Adrenaline rushed through him and his index finger tightened. The rifle pressed back into his shoulder. He smiled very slightly. He looked at his target. It was as though it was in slow motion. He watched the force of impact jerk the target's left shoulder back slightly.

He stood up revealing his position directly in front of the boy in a shop directly across the square from where he sat at the edge of the hole. He watched the kid fall slowly. Then the kid landed on his side. The sound seemed more thunderous to the bounty hunter than even his own rifle. The smile on his face widened. He saw the two girls running towards the dead kid. But they stopped. The bounty hunter was about to walk out of the shop he stared at his dead prey.

Then his blood froze.

The kid sat up as slowly as he had fallen. He had taken a direct hit to the heart! How could he be alive, let alone conscious? He hadn't missed. The blood filtering through the boys clothes told him that much. So how was he still alive?

The bounty hunter raised his rifle again. His finger met the trigger without haste. He put the crosshairs on the kid's heart again. The shot seemed to lack sound. The boy was hit again. This time the hunter could see the dark spray ejected backwards from his target. He could see a pinhole of light through the boy's chest. The boy did not fall again. He stared at his attacker. Piercingly cold eyes returned the hunter's puzzled and fearful stare. But then they lost their edge and seemed to lose focus on him. But they were not unseeing. Not yet…

He raised the gun one last time and aimed for the middle of the boy's forehead. The crosshairs sat neatly below the part in the boy's long black hair. He felt his finger inching its way backwards. The cold steel of the small trigger met with his finger giving him a chill through his spine.

----

A third shot rang out through the silence of the streets. Myra and Kristyn had ducked quickly as the sound met their ears. Toyuki stood up. Blood ran across his eyes and he wiped it away. The black liquid shined menacingly on his hand. He had not fully returned to normal. He started to walk around the side of the crater in the ground. The man with the rifle aimed again. Toyuki continued to walk around the hole, staring at the ground in deep thought as he did. He felt the intense pressure and heat rip through his stomach. Myra screamed. Toyuki continued to follow the edge of the crater in the ground until he was directly in front of the man again. He slowly turned towards the man. His right arm was grazed by the intense heat of another shot. The man was losing his control to his fear.

Toyuki started walking towards the shop and the man backed further into it. Several shots now missed him completely.

"Why…?"

The man was very much startled by the sound of the boy's voice, calm as it was.

"Why can't I…"

Toyuki looked at the ground again in intense thought.

"What the hell are you?" the man said softly to himself.

"I wish I knew."

Toyuki looked up. The bounty hunter saw deep into his bright eyes. They reflected silent rage that clashed with the sorrow on his face. As Toyuki turned away he felt as though he was still half the demon he had been. He was not human again. He was still at least partially the monster Hiryuu.

Myra looked up and saw Toyuki walking toward the north. He followed the street toward the edge of town.

The two girls followed him slowly and far behind. People began looking out of windows and some even went outside to see the giant hole in the center of the main square where there had been a monumental fountain.

----

After three days, Kristyn and Myra had to stop in the city of Inepril they were nearly starving after following Hiryuu and they had lost him on the way. He was just too fast for them to follow. They immediately headed for the nearest saloon and had a great meal. They found a Bernardelli outpost and headed in.

"May I help you?" the woman at the counter said.

"Yes, I'm Kristyn Paine and this Myra Thompson. We were sent out on to investigate and contain Hiryuu."

"Myra and Kristyn?"

"Yes."

"Paine and Thompson?"

"Yes!"

"Who went after Hiryuu?"

"YES!" Kristyn yelled.

"I heard you two had sided with Hiryuu, you were fired a few days ago."

"Fired!" Kristyn said. "We were fired?"

"Why were we fired?" Myra said.

"Did I not just say you two were supposed to have joined Hiryuu? You've both earned yourself bounties."

"WHAA!" Kristyn said her jaw hitting the ground.

"I'm going to have to arrest you both."

"Myra."

"Kristyn."

"RUUNN!"

The two of them bolted out of the outpost and headed for the nearest vehicle. Krystin started it up and drove off in a hurry.

"That's my car!" a man bellowed behind them.

"Kristyn, I think this was that sheriff's car. He stole another one and he's following us."

"Well then we'll have to lose him cause apparently we're wanted."

The two girls drove around the city for nearly half an hour before they lost the sheriff and ditched the stolen car a block away from where they stole it. They headed for a nearby glumly inn and spent the night in it. Kristyn wondered what had been happened to them over the past two weeks. They were chasing an outlaw, found him and the next thing you knew they were considered to be outlaws themselves.

----

Toyuki walked toward the ruins of a city under a cliff. A sign lying on the ground said "Welcome to Felnar".

He knew that there was something different. After this much time he should have been either killing or dead, yet he had no hunger and he had lost everyone following him. It had been already eight days. He sat in a saloon on the edge of the deserted and destroyed town and grabbed a bottle of old whiskey that was left on the shelf. He looked around the bar wondering how long he could stay there before someone tracked him down.

He looked at the bottle of whiskey again and set it down unopened. What was the hag doing, and why was she suddenly so angry. What went wrong? He realized he hadn't actually attempted to change since the fall. He wondered if she had actually made him incapable of changing back.

"Please don't let it work," he said to himself. He closed his eyes and tried to change. He looked in the foggy mirror. "GODDAMMIT, HAG!"

The red dragon staring back at him through the foggy mirror was still more happy than disappointed. Toyuki was still a monster, but as far as he could tell, he no longer needed to kill. He looked in the mirror again at the boy he once was.

He thought back to nearly one thousand years ago. He thought about the sister he had loved so much. His father and mother who had loved him so much. He remembered what he saw when he came out of hiding. What they had done to his family.

He realized how much like them he had been.

"Never again."

He took his claw knife out of his pocket and cut off a good length of hair.

"I'll never kill again."

Long black hair fell to the dusty floor.

Next, Chapter 11: In Plain View


End file.
